KOMOTINI, Greece, Aug 5 (AFP) - A Palestinian would-be immigrant was blown up and another four people injured on Thursday as they snuck across a minefield on the Greek-Turkish border, the Greek army said.
The men were from the Palestinian territories and Morocco, the army said in a statement, contradicting earlier police reports that seven men from Pakistan and India had stepped on the mines.
The incident occurred on the Greek side of the border near the village of Kastanies, the only stretch of the mine-strewn 200-kilometre (130-mile) frontier where illegal would-be migrants can cross into Greece on foot.
Another two people in the group who escaped unharmed from the minefield -- which the army said was clearly marked -- are being held by Greek border guards.
Greece is believed to be the only European Union country which still uses landmines and about 50 people have been killed trying to enter the country from Turkey since 1996. The mines were laid after the two rival NATO members were on the brink of war in 1974.
Turkey denies that it has any anti-personnel mines on its side of the border, a claim the Greek army disputes.
In a separate development, Greek border guards arrested 27 would-be immigrants men from Pakistan, seven from India and one from Bangladesh in a Greek truck bound for Athens.
Greek armed forces are conducting extensive patrols along the country's land and sea borders as part of a massive security operation for the Olympic Games which open in Athens on August 13.
The Evros river trail on the Greek-Turkish border is used by thousands of illegal immigrants en route from Asia to Europe every year and people are detained there almost daily.
Greece has said it will start clearing an estimated 1.2 million landmines along its border with Turkey in September, adding that it would take up to a decade to eliminate them.
In September last year Greece and Turkey simultaneously ratified the 1997 Ottawa Convention, which gives them 10 years to remove mines from the border.